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I have this saying: A good book’s worth whatever the price, but a bad book always costs too much.* I picked up a copy of Barbara the Slut and Other People by Lauren Holmes. It was a bargain priced book, an excess copy that Barnes & Noble was trying to get rid of. I wanted to read the book a couple of years ago when it was first released in hardback by Riverhead Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House. There’s always a hesitation when it comes to me buying a collection of stories by a debuting author. I was a bit more reckless in college when I purchased Julie Orringer’s debut, How to Breathe Underwater. However, I never regretted that purchase—and, I purchased…

No one would mistake me for a gamer. Sure, I’ve dabbled in blowing off a zombie’s head here and there; I’ve taken to the streets of Gotham and defeated the Joker three times; my portal-thinking skills have propelled me through a dystopian future; and I’ve crash landed on a strange alien creation harboring some pesky secrets. None of these has ever made me a serious gamer. They’re more of a pastime than a passion or even a hobby. I do read, though. And I do love traveling through the depths of fandom that might lead me to other forms of it. Earlier this month, I wrote a review for Delilah S. Dawson’s take on under-used character from The Force Awakens. And if you can…

Imagine being a nerd—an adult nerd—who grew up watching the epic battles of the “star wars” on VHS tapes. Movies recorded off cable TV. Or catching the edited-for-time versions networks seemed to play on heavy rotation. Imagine this adult nerd in high school, sophomore year, feeling the excitement—an excitement that he spent weeks cultivating—drain out of him as he watches the first film of a prequel trilogy. And imagine that teenage nerd being disappointed into his early twenties as he tries to wrap his head around the idea that a whiny teenager could become the galaxy’s ultimate bad guy. Imagine this nerd in his early thirties as he sits in front of his computer as he watches the first teaser to the first film…